Flap-necked Chamaeleon

(Chamaeleo dilepis)

Facts

IUCN LEAST CONCERN (LC)

Facts about this animal

The total length is 35 to 40 cm. Their characteristic are large occipital lobes. Relaxed colours of this species are a light green (or grey, or brown) with a small white stripe along the side. When they get excited and/or stressed, they quickly acquire small black dots throughout their bodies. It is a diurnal, active species that moves around all day, but it is also rather shy and aggressive. When ready to mate, females change their colour (green with yellow spots) and tolerate males near them. Mating lasts about one hour. Females lay between 20-30 eggs after a gestation period of about a month in a whole they have been digging themselves. The eggs hatch after an incubation of 6 to 7 months. After only 9 moths the offspring reaches sexual maturity.

Did you know?
that the females of this species are larger than the males and superior to them? They occupy the best spots, establish territories attack the adult males and the younger individuals and drive them away. Only during the short mating period they tolerate males within their territory and near them. When however gravid females come into contact with a male, they turn almost completely black and begin to head-butt the intruding male.

They live in forest-, bush- and grass-savannahs (rather open and dry habitat), where the temperatures are moderate, however they can stand temperatures as cold as 5 degrees C and as warm as 35 degrees C, but with high humidity and only for short periods of time. They stay on branches of trees and bushes, also on high grass, but rarely on the ground.